


Torn Apart

by Caffinated_Story



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Other, aggressively fills in the blanks of canon, until someone explains how Reaper's body works I'm just gonna make up my own
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 01:58:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8558869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffinated_Story/pseuds/Caffinated_Story
Summary: Gabriel Reyes had signed up with no second thought, fully prepared for a gruelling life as a soldier – whatever that life would bring. But he never expected to be torn apart so violently.





	

The military had always offered a certain sense of security; not necessarily for your life, but certainly for your finances.  
Far too many signed up and never came home, but that statistic never actually made a big enough dent in new recruits to matter.

One good thing about being on the super soldier program was that you got accelerated healing alongside strength and speed.  
A handy little ability to have when you were thrown into all kinds of battles that could literally tear your limbs off.

That said, how that healing worked wasn't exactly explained in full until you had signed your name and soul off to the government.   
Yet, for some people the fine print wasn't important.  
At least not there and then.

Gabriel Reyes had signed his name with no second thought, fully prepared for a gruelling life as a soldier – whatever that life would bring.

Yet he got a little more than what he bargained for.

The 'serum' wasn't really anything to object to.  
A few needles and some clear liquid wasn't much to fear.

Sure, some succumbed to the serum, their bodies to weak to deal with the chemical.  
But in progress sacrifices had to be made.

Gabriel made it out of the program.  
He survived.

Hell, he thrived.

He was good.  
No amount of mumbled lies behind his back about his past could out-weight his skills.

He jumped ranks quickly, hard working and focused it was near impossible to deny him higher and higher positions.

But at some point his rise halted.

Jack was his friend – someone he'd trust to have his back in any battle, but it left a slightly bitter after-taste in his mouth when it seemed Jack was put forward as the better choice again and again.  
Gabriel tried to leave it behind him, focused on his new job instead.

Jack was the poster-boy of Overwatch.  
Blackwatch was the real power.

Or so Gabriel told himself.

And for a while he made himself believe it too.

However, the cracks in the once stable foundation had started to form.

Gabriel didn't notice.

No one did.

After all, the first little warning signs were too small to even talk about, let alone consider.  
The other little cracks were simply pushed under the carpet, labelled as little 'mishaps'.

Technology was after all, always something to marvel and curse at.  
Everyone knew that.

The same nanobots that were supposed to stitch him back together and mend any wounds could also reverse the healing process.

All you needed was a little 'bug' in the system.

It had been a very slow process.  
So slow it was barely noticeable – for him and the others.

Mercy had been meretricious in her testing when she'd first introduced the Nanobots to Overwatch.  
Daily blood tests and samples left, right and centre.

She kept tabs on what the bots did and how their interacted with the 'host' cells.

All was well for years, so the tests slowly became few and far between.

There was no real reason to assume anything was wrong.

Why report on something you didn't know or notice was broken?

It started so slowly.  
So faint.

Wounds didn't disappear completely like they once did, they just left little scars.  
Scars so faint he forgot he had them.  
Then slowly new wounds would leave bigger scars.

And bigger ones.

Deeper.

More painful.

But they healed, and that was all he really cared about.

He had too much to do to dwell on why he no longer healed like he once did.

“We're getting old,” Jack had chuckled once during a joined mission, and Gabriel had agreed.  
Not even Nanobots could stop the onset of death.

Broken bones could be mended.  
Skin could be stitched up.

The physical body could be mended.

On the other hand, cracks in a foundation do not simply mend themselves.  
They just continue spreading.  
Slowly crumbling once great walls.

Owerwatch didn't stand a chance when it started collapsing in on itself.

It got out of hand.  
Far too much out of hand.

But he was angry, fed up and certain he had been betrayed.  
From every angle it seemed like people were against him.

And Jack was just the straw that broke his back.

The argument had become a rebellion and the rebellion became a battle and then a war.

One super soldier against another was a simple recipe for disaster.  
But neither could predict the destruction they caused.

By the time Gabriel woke up, he wasn't sure what was up or what was down any more.  
Every inch of his skin felt as if it was being ripped to pieces and burned.

It was as if something was grating every layer of skin off bit by bit, digging deeper into his tissue and tearing it off all the way down to his bones, for then to slowly weld every ligament, vein, artery and muscle back. 

Then the agonizing process of removing it again would seemingly start anew.

The nanobots were trying to keep him alive.  
Building up what was gone and piercing his broken body back together.  
Every little cell was kicked into high gear to keep him alive.

But at the moment Gabriel didn't even remember where he was.

All he knew was that everything hurt and his anger was still burning brightly.

Slowly his mind pierced together the events.

He'd confronted Jack.  
They had argued – as they had done so many times before.  
But this time Gabriel didn't back down.  
This time he wanted to show Jack that he was just as strong, if not stronger.

Of course, when two super soldiers go head to head, some collateral damage is to be expected.  
But Gabriel hadn’t expected the explosion.

'Morrison' he thought as his vision slowly started to reappear.  
Jack Morrison had set it all up. Of course.

It was the only logical conclusion he could think off as he lay under several tons of rubble.  
Something snapped and he let out a loud scream.  
Or, more correctly, he tried to scream.

His vocal cords made no sound, the little 'bots still working on repairing that part of him.

Gabriel tried to lift his arm into his field of vision, watching in horror as his skin moved as if it was liquid.

He moved his fingers, finding the whole process agonizing.  
His vision blurred slightly and when he managed to focus his eyes on his hand once more he was certain he was dying. Nanobots or not, this had to be death.

His hand was no longer solid.   
It was flickering between smoke and solid flesh and bone.

This wasn't the life he'd signed up for, nor was it the death he'd hoped for either.

He tried to focus on moving his legs, but heavy slabs of concrete had trapped him.  
The nanobots were working overtime trying to fix his severed limbs, and Gabriel could feel the bones try to reconnect with the broken pieces still trapped underneath the rubble.

If this was what being saved felt like, then he didn't want it.  
He wanted death to embrace him fully, drag him down into an eternal sleep.

How long had he been trapped?  
How many hours or days had passed?

Gabriel wasn't sure.

Was anyone looking for him?  
Or had everyone given up?

The uncertainty did little to put out the raging fire in his heart.

Where was Mercy?

Gabriel closed his eyes and let the bots continue with their work.  
He couldn't stop them, so what other choices did he have than to live?

He knew something was wrong.   
He could feel that something was missing and failing him; because why else would the 'bots struggle so much?

Several seemed to try to settle down, before tearing their designated cell away once more.

Gabriel was certain his whole body was flickering between solid mass and dust.

One foot in the grave and one on solid ground.

Voices seemed to pass over and by him at times, but he couldn't pierce them together or muster any strength to signal where he was.

Why would it matter anyway?  
No one could fix this.

The little 'bots in charge of keeping him alive had already failed him.  
Gabriel didn't think anyone could repair the damage now.  
It was too late for that.

He didn't know how long after the explosion it was, but he eventually gained some sort of coherent grasp over his new body.  
It started with controlling his hands.  
Letting them fade to dust and then re-appear.

Then when he had to grasp of that he started working on the rest of his body.

If no one would free him from underneath all the rubble, then he would have to do it himself.  
As usual.

But where could he go?

By the time he freed himself from the rubble, Gabriel didn't feel like himself any more.  
His whole body quivered and struggled to stay solid for long periods of time.

It was easier to cover long distances as mist.  
It was easier to be a ghostly shell of his former self.  
Easier to give in to all the anger and hatred that had built up inside him for so long.

He'd fought so hard to be the good guy, and for that he'd gotten so little in return.

Now it was time to pave a new path.  
Follow a different lifeline.

Claw onto something to give meaning to this cursed life.  
The cursed body he struggled to keep in check.

His face was no longer the same; he had recoiled in horror at the first look at it.  
Charred and shredded – unable to heal or repair itself any more.  
Flesh torn and missing, exposing pieces of bone.

He couldn't face the person staring back in the mirror.

Gabriel Reyes was gone.

Reaper was all that was left.


End file.
